outcome mapping for insight to impact meeting

A small exercise

• 5 minutes• On your own: Who are the stakeholders in

your line of work? Who are the key actors that affect the outcome of your work?

• Write them down on a piece of paper (just a list)

the outcome mapping story

2nd Impact and Insight Meeting, London, 2007

✓mid-1990s: need to demonstrate results

✓1998: Barry Kibel and Outcome Engineering

✓methodological collaboration with FRAO & NEPED (IDRC funded projects)

✓2000: publication of manual in English

✓presenting, training & using OM globally

✓2006: www.outcomemapping.ca

a brief history

©TOM Jochen Enterprises, Möckernstr.78 10965 Berlin

opportunities for P,M,E and learning

beginning

Life cycle of the program

endduring

objectives, inputs,

activities

results,outputs,impact

Impact(changes in

environmental or social conditions)

Objectives(activities, products)

Outcome Challenges(changes in behaviour)

Life cycle of the program

different approaches

Logical Frame

Analysis

Results based Mgt

the problem with « impact »Impact implies Development Implies

Cause & effect Open system

Positive, intended results Unexpected positive & negative results occur

Focus on ultimate effects Upstream effects are important

Credit goes to a single contributor

Multiple actors create results & need credit

Story ends when program obtains success

Change process never ends

what is outcome mapping?

a method for planning and assessing the social effects and

internal performance of projects, programs,

and organisations

a flexible, multiple-use tool

✓ Planning

✓ Monitoring

✓ Evaluation

What are we trying to accomplish and how?

What do we want to learn?

How do we know we are on-track?

OM’s response to 4 key planning questions

Why?

Who?

What?

How?

vision

boundary partners

outcomes challenges and progress markers

mission, strategy map, organizational practices

key ideas in

look at the bigger picture

See yourself as a part of an

interconnected web of relationships and

systems

recognize that change is…

✓ Continuous ✓ Complex✓ Non-linear✓ Multidirectional✓ Not controllable

embrace constant change

“You cannot step into the same river twice..”Heraclitus, 6th c.

Greek philosopher

How can we increase our knowledge of the processes we engage in?

How can we know if we made a difference?

How can we recognize contributors and share the credit?

In the face of this complexity:

keep your eyes wide open

Being attentive along the journey is as important as

reaching the destination

focus on direct partners

✓ Identify the individuals, groups, and organizations you work with directly and try to influence

✓ Develop a strong relationship with them

✓ Find the best way to support their contribution to the vision

recognize the limits of your influence

Program

= boundary partners

The rest of the world

nested spheres

Project

Boundary partners

Ultimate beneficiaries

Adapted from: Steff Deprez VVOB-CEGO, Nov 2006

sphere of control

sphere of influence

sphere of interest

focus of outcome mapping

Behavioural Changes

community capacity & ownership increases

program influence decreases

why behaviour changes?

✓ Development is done by and for people

✓ While a program may be able to influence peoples actions, it cannot control them.

✓ Ultimate responsibility rests with the people affected

progressive changes

• OM focuses on progressive changes in the behaviours (Progress Markers)

• Progress markers are like the scene-plans of a movie (for one of the characters). And like in a movie, their scenes will include other characters

• They are ‘our theory of change’• And are not set in stone

Progress Markers for local communities1. Participating in regular model forest meetings2. Establishing a structure for cooperation3. Acquiring new skills for managing model forests 4. Contributing resources to get the MF operational5. Articulating a locally relevant vision for the MF6. Promoting their MF nationally7. Expanding the partnership 8. Calling upon external experts for advice9. Requesting new opportunities for training10. Publishing examples of benefits achieved through MF11. Seeking out new partners for the MF12. Obtaining funding from different national sources13. Helping other communities establish MFs14. Sharing lessons learned internationally15. Influencing national policy debates on resource use

Therefore, think contribution not attribution!

development involves complex interactions

&you can influence but not control your partners (They are NOT like billiard balls!)

An examplemission vision

Girls & Women

Community Leaders

Women’s Self Help Groups

Families

PoliceState NGOs

Banks

Public Health Clinics

Strategic Partners

Strategies Project’s OutcomesBoundary

PartnersBP’s outcomes

BAIF

M&E

Accountability & Learning: A Balancing Act

Accountability & Learning: A Balancing Act

planning and assessment possibilities in OM

Program(performance

journal)

Partner(outcomejournal)

outcomes(behaviour changes in the

partners)implementation(interventions by the program)

relevance & viability(of the program)

contextual information

situational data

Strategies(strategy journal)

reviewing the intentional design1. Read the vision statement

Does this still reflect the program's dream?

2. Read the mission statement

Is this the greatest contribution our program can make? Have we been doing this? Why? Why not? Should we add anything or take anything away?

3. Review boundary partners

Is this who we are working with directly? Do we need to add or drop any boundary partners?

4. Review outcomes Do these accurately reflect transformations in our boundary partners as they strengthen their contributions to the vision?

5. Review progress markers

Was the change process we set out accurate and useful? What now needs to be added or taken out?

6. Review strategies What did we plan to do? Have we implemented these activities? Do we need to add, remove any?

7. Review organizational practices

Are we doing everything we can to maintain & enhance our capacity to support our partners?

ongoing OM applicationshttp://www.outcomemapping.ca

Ghana Korea Switzerland

Kenya Ecuador United Kingdom

Madagascar Mexico Brussels

Mali Egypt Netherlands

Namibia Bhutan Australia

Uganda Honduras Sri Lanka

Zimbabwe Guatemala India

What are we trying to accomplish and how?

What do we want to learn?

How do we know we are on-track?

uses

PLANNING articulate goals & define activities

MONITORINGtrack program performance & partners’ progress

EVALUATIONdesign & conduct a use-oriented evaluation

primary uses

how do we use it?

• Mostly ‘stealth’:– Key principles: Behaviours, Boundary

Partners, Progress Markers, Monitoring Journals

– Communications: focusing on Boundary partners

– KM: using journals for ‘learning on the job’– Capacity development: using the OM

narrative

Main constrains

• Time• Resources• Necessary changes in up-ward

accountability• Requires important changes in the user of

the methodology• Can be sued to evaluate (ex post) but it is

really designed for planning (ex ante)

A small exercise• On your own: go back to the list and underline

(or highlight or circle) the stakeholders with which you work directly (your boundary partners) -1 minute

• In pairs (with the person sitting next to you), one at a time: – Choose one of the boundary partners– Tell your partner how they behave today and how you

would love them to behave in the ideal future (if everything was perfect). Write them down

-15 minutes

A small exercise

• How different are two sets (stakeholders v. boundary partners)?

• Did you write down THEIR behaviours? (i.e. what they do or their relationships –NOT how aware or knowledgeable they are or what others do to them)

• Can you imagine a progressive process of changes from Today to Ideal?